Civil servants in the Finance Ministry have come out strongly against the Interior Ministry’s food stamp program, which will be allocated a budget of 850 million shekels ($240 million) over the next two years. As revealed in a recent Shomrim investigation, which was published in conjunction with Calcalist, the criteria for eligibility to receive the food voucher, which is distributed using a rechargeable credit card, favors Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community – at the expense of other vulnerable communities who are left to cope with much lower levels of support.

In late 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its most intense, the Interior Ministry – then under the control of Aryeh Deri (Shas) – unveiled a 700-million-shekel ($200 million) initiative to help vulnerable families experiencing food insecurity. The criterion for receiving the aid without submitting a request was that the recipient already be eligible on an ongoing basis for a 70 percent discount in municipal taxes. The money was transferred to the families in three stages; in total, every family received up to 7,200 shekels.

Last month, Shomrim revealed how that money was distributed. Data shows that the criteria based on eligibility for a municipal tax break skewed the distribution in favor of the ultra-Orthodox population. An analysis of the assistance handed out to communities in the first and second socioeconomic clusters, as defined by the Central Bureau of Statistics, which include the most vulnerable communities in Israel in socioeconomic terms, highlights this very clearly. In first place on the list is the ultra-Orthodox town of Modi'in Illit, where 8,780 families received the rechargeable credit card at a total cost of 40 million shekels. On average, residents of Modi'in Illit received 530 shekels each in the initiative’s framework. Second on the list was another ultra-Orthodox town – Beitar Illit – where residents received an average of 397 shekels.

In contrast, in the Bedouin city of Rahat, which is approximately the same size as Modi'in Illit, just 2,456 families received the food card and, on average, residents of Israel’s only Bedouin city received 129 shekels.

In Tel Sheva, residents received an average of 67 shekels each, in nearby Hura, the average was 55 shekels, in the Al-Kasom Regional Council, it was 18 shekels each, while in the Neveh Midbar Regional Council – which, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, is Israel’s most impoverished community – it was just 14 shekels.

The current coalition agreement between the Likud party and Shas guaranteed another 1 billion shekels ($273 million) for the rechargeable credit cards. Shas intends to distribute the money similarly. A legal opinion written by the Budget Department in the Finance Ministry, prepared ahead of the upcoming budget discussions and submitted to the government in the past few days, states that “the proposed plan to distribute food vouchers does not necessarily advance the population experiencing food insecurity, since the criterion cited does not focus the investment on people experiencing poverty.”

According to the document, which was signed by Yogev Gradus, the Director General of the Budget Department, 32 percent of up households meet the criteria for receiving the food vouchers, while just 16 percent of them suffer from food insecurity. While 42 percent of households in the Arab community suffer from food insecurity, just 17 percent of them would be eligible for the Interior Ministry’s food card.

“It should be stressed,” the opinion added, “that there are additional problems of criterion with the system of food cards as it is being proposed, which create a reliance on government bodies and create a poverty trap and are incongruous with the state’s overall welfare policy.”

In addition, Channel 13 News recently reported that the Finance Minister’s legal adviser, Assi Messing, has also sent a legal opinion opposing the plan. According to Messing, the plan raises fundamental legal difficulties, concluding that the criterion for distribution “cannot be defended professionally or legally.” Messing also highlighted research that analyzed the food stamp assistance handed out during the coronavirus pandemic, which showed that the families that benefited from the subsidy were not necessarily those experiencing food insecurity.

Last month’s Shomrim investigation also found that, according to an analysis conducted by the national food security project, which is run by the Welfare Ministry, just 16 percent of the families who receive support from the project are entitled to the discount in municipal taxes that would automatically entitle them to the food card. Latet, a non-profit organization that provides regular assistance to tens of thousands of families experiencing food insecurity, says that its rate is slightly higher – around 28 percent. And still, they reached a similar conclusion: most of the assistance given out through the food cards did not reach those who needed it most – families suffering from extreme food insecurity.